UCLA Football Preview: Arizona Defense Is Improved from Last Season
Despite the defensive improvements, the Bruin offense still matches up well against the Wildcat defense.
With the Wildcats’ defense continuing under the direction of defensive coordinator and former UCLA assistant Johnny Nansen, Arizona will again run a 4-2-5 defense, just like last season.
That means that the Cats will have a nose tackle, a defensive tackle, two defensive ends including one edge rusher that UofA calls a Kat.
Arizona will have a pair of inside linebackers to go along with their Star safety/linebacker hybrid rather than using a traditional nickel back. The Wildcat secondary will feature a boundary corner and boundary safety along with a field corner and field safety.
The biggest difference between this year’s Arizona team and last year’s team is the improvement in the defense. Last season, UofA gave up 36.50 points per game while they are only allowing an average of 21.0 points per game this year. That’s comparable to the improvement UCLA’s defense has made this year from last year. The Bruins gave up an average of 29 points per game last season and they are averaging just 15 points per game this year.
Let’s look at Arizona’s defensive personnel.
Defensive Line
The Arizona defensive line has been completely re-tooled from last season. Three of the starters were added through the transfer portal while the other is a redshirt freshman who played on the defensive line in just three games last season.
The redshirt freshman is Isaiah Ward. Not surprisingly, Ward has made the smallest impact, at least statistically. He has 13 tackles including three TFLs and two sacks. He’s also added one pass breakup, two QB hurries and he’s forced a fumble.
Senior transfer Bill Norton joins the Wildcats as their starting nose tackle after playing at Georgia since 2019. Norton has made 17 tackles this season including 1.5 TFLs. He has also had one pass breakup and three quarterback hurries.
Two former Bruins will be on the Arizona defensive line at defensive tackle. Senior Tyler Manoa who transferred from UCLA after last season will be the starter while junior Tia Savea will be his backup. While Savea is Manoa’s backup, Savea has 17 tackles including five TFLs and one and a half sacks. Manoa has made 16 tackles this season with just one TFL which was a sack. Manoa has had two QB hurries and a fumble recovery while Savea has a hurry.
Michigan grad transfer Taylor Upshaw will start at defensive end tomorrow and he’s probably made the biggest impact on the line for Arizona. He leads the team in sacks with 6.5 to go along with his 15 tackles and half of his tackles were tackles for loss. Additionally, he’s added four quarterback hurries and forced one fumble.
Linebackers
Sophomore Jacob Manu is starting again this season at the Will linebacker. Manu is the Wildcats’ leading tackler this season. He’s made 67 tackles this year including 6.5 TFLs. On top of that, he’s been a general menace. He is second on the team in sacks with 3.5 and he leads the team in QB hurries with 7. So, look for him to be the Wildcat most likely to cause havoc for Bruin quarterbacks tomorrow night.
Junior transfer Daniel Heimuli joins the Cats from Washington and should start at Mike linebacker. While he hasn’t made the kind of impact some of the other starting transfers have made, he’s still notched 15 tackles including two TFLs. He also has one QB hurry and a fumble recovery. Justin Flowe could start instead of Heimuli, given that he’s started four of the last six games. Flowe has made 39 tackles, ranking him fourth on the team, including two TFLs and one sack. He has also broken up a pass and recovered a fumble.
Secondary
Like the defensive line, the Arizona secondary has been re-tooled this year, but not in the same way. No one in the secondary was starting at their current position last season; however, three of the five starters saw significant playing time last year.
Sophomore Ephesians Prysock will start at the boundary corner after playing field corner last season. Prysock’s 36 tackles ranks him fifth on the team. He’s also picked off one pass and broken up three passes. Redshirt sophomore Dalton Johnson will start as the boundary safety. Johnson has made the second most tackles on the team this year with 45 including two TFLs, one of which was a sack. He also has a pass breakup, a QB hurry and three forced fumbles.
Field corner Dylan Wyatt is a redshirt senior transfer who previously played for Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Wyatt’s only start this season came against Northern Arizona and he’s only played in six games all season. In those six games, he’s made just three tackles and broken up one pass. So, he may not end up being the starter tomorrow.
If I had to guess, I’d probably argue that Tacario Davis will probably get the start at field corner based on the fact that his 19 tackles ranks him seventh on the team. He also leads the team in pass breakups with 10 while picking off one pass. Gunner Maldonado will start at as the field safety, shifting from the Star position last year. He’s third on the team in tackles with 44 with a TFL as well as a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Treydan Stukes shifted from being a field corner to playing the Star position this year. The move has paid dividends as Stukes is sixth in tackles including two TFLs. He also has four breakups.
Finally, former Bruin Martell Irby looks like he is the Swiss Army knife of the Arizona defense. He’s gotten starts at field corner and Star this season. Not only is he eighth in tackles with 19 including two TFLs, he has two pass breakups, a QB hurry, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
Analysis
UCLA cannot afford a slow offensive start like they had last week against Colorado because Arizona’s got a solid defense which is better than last year’s team which held the Bruins to 28 points.
The good news is that the Wildcats are giving up an average of 209.1 rushing yards per game while allowing 33 rushing touchdowns. That bodes well for the Bruins.
So does the fact that UofA is allowing nearly an identical amount of passing yards per game and passing touchdowns as the Bruin offense has put up.
So, the matchup of the UCLA offense vs the Arizona defense looks to be a good one, which further illustrates the fact that the difference in this game will come down to the Bruin defense stopping the Wildcat offense as I wrote in our preview of the Arizona offense.
Go Bruins!!!
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